[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 55 (Friday, March 24, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H3738]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               A PROMISE OF SIMPLE DECENCY TO IMMIGRANTS

  (Mr. MENENDEZ asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the chairman of the Ways and 
Means Committee pointed with pride to ancestors who came here not with 
their hands out, but to work.
  I must ask the chairman, did any of his distinguished ancestors 
receive free government land?
  The great State of Texas was founded by pioneers drawn there by 
government land grants. For example, in 1838, Texas gave one John 
Archer more than a thousand acres in Shelby County.
  I guess that is not welfare.
  We remember this history with pride because such grants brought to 
our shores people who built not only the State of Texas, but the 
wealthiest Nation on Earth.
  The time for free land is over. But as the son of immigrants, I ask 
from the sons and daughters of earlier settlers a simple promise to 
those who came later: If you come here legally, if you work hard, if 
you pay your taxes, and abide by our laws, and fall on hard times 
through no fault of your own, you will be eligible to help your sick 
child, or infirm wife. That is simple human decency. We do not want 
land, we just want fairness.


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